


A Scarlet Winter

by LizzyChrome



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Anti ScarletVision fixit, Awesome Wanda Maximoff, BAMF Wanda Maximoff, Bucky Barnes Angst, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Has Issues, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Canon Divergence - Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Christ Evans is a fine actor when given incentive and deserved better, Clintasha - Freeform, Clintasha Fixit, Drpepperony - Freeform, F/M, He can express all kinds of emotions when he's given an actual character to play, Hurt Bucky Barnes, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt Wanda Maximoff, In this fic that is-in canon he's just an inconsistent Gary Stu, IronStrange, Jewish Wanda Maximoff, Laura divorces Clint, M/M, Nomad Steve Rogers, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Pepperony - Freeform, Pro Everyone On Team Cap Except for Cap, Pro Tony Stark, Romani Wanda Maximoff, Staron - Freeform, Stephen Strange trains Wanda Maximoff, Steve Rogers is Totally A Villain, StrangeIron, Telepathic Wanda Maximoff, The Raft Prison (Marvel), Tony Angst, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Friendly, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Vision Friendly it just didn't work out for them, Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Wanda Maximoff Angst, Wanda Maximoff Friendly, Wanda Maximoff Needs a Hug, pro wanda maximoff, scarletwinter, seriously see him in "Knives Out", winterwitch - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:26:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24929893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LizzyChrome/pseuds/LizzyChrome
Summary: Steve Rogers is now "Nomad," and commands the Rogue Avengers aboard the hijacked Raft. But all is not well aboard the U.S.S. Capsicle. Bucky despises working with a “willing” Hydra agent who "specializes in mind control," and Wanda is desperate to prove herself. Her “chance” comes when the boss brings home a very high profile prisoner, who he says is needed for a top secret project. Steve insists that Wanda use her powers to “help” Tony “understand" why the Rogues are in the right.But when she peaks into Stark's mind, Wanda learns some things that Steve didn't count on. To begin with, the fact that the world of superhumans is far bigger and offers far more opportunities than Wanda ever realized...
Relationships: Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov, Helen Keller/Pinball Wizard, James "Bucky" Barnes/Wanda Maximoff, Peggy Carter/Daniel Sousa, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark/Stephen Strange, Scott Lang/Hope Van Dyne, Sharon Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers/His Ego, Tony Stark/Stephen Strange
Comments: 9
Kudos: 82





	A Scarlet Winter

**Author's Note:**

> In case you missed the tags, this fic is" _not_ Steve Rogers friendly." It is also _pro-_ Tony Stark, and somewhat center-opinionated on the Sokovia Accords. 
> 
> I don't go in for this whole "Love or hate the entire 'Team'" fad among the fandom. I found Bucky and Wanda sympathetic in "Civil War;" I like Sam in the other movies; and Cilnt...after seeing "Endgame," I'm not far more angry _for_ his character than I ever was _at_ him. And I _always_ love Ant-Man.
> 
> Basically, if you were looking for a "Team Cap!" or "Anti-Stark" fic, you'll have to get your jollies elsewhere.

_"Weee all liiive in a giant Oreoooo….”_

Scott Lang sat on a futon erected in one of the former cells, singing offkey as he drummed on an upside-down bucket.

He seemed to be the only one aboard the Raft even attempting to pretend to enjoy himself.

It was a cruel irony, that they were all now “free,” but still confined to this damned windowless seacraft.

Months earlier, Steve Rogers had freed his friends and thrown all of the Raft’s security guards overboard, save those few willing to betray their government and join his cause. He didn’t hurt any of them of course (so Steve claimed); he’d just marooned them off the coast of Nicaragua. Nomad, as Steve now went by, commanded the Raft of Rogues across the Atlantic, performing vigilante acts in various countries around the hemisphere, and picking up new recruits as he found them.

Many around the world considered “the Cap and his Merry Men” to be heroes, fighting an oppressive government. And why shouldn’t they? The governments they were fighting were clearly corrupt. The Rogues had saved several lives as vigilantes since escaping. They had the approval of civilians around the globe, as evidence from the graffiti, pop art and websites dedicated to support of “the Cap” and his allies. Granted, for each of those, there was also a website or piece of artwork for “Team Iron Man,” but there was no denying that Team Cap had a fanclub.

So why did everyone aboard the “submarine” seem so miserable?

Wanda leaned back in the chair that she had once been restrained to, lazily levitating a collection of random objects in an attempt to stave off boredom. As the storm of office supplies and kitchen utensils orbited her in a slow-motion tornado of junk, Wanda did what she kept swearing she would stop doing, and let her mind wander. Literally. Reaching out with the weakest form of her telepathy, she could “hear” conversations all around the Raft.

Clint Barton was in his room (formerly the quarters of a Raft security guard), on the phone, trying to reason with a very angry woman.

“… _No Clint. We were finished years ago. This was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. I was only going to hold off until the kids left the nest—_ ”

“Laura, I did this for _you_! For all of you! To protect you and our children—”

“ _Funny how ‘protecting’ us always means running away. And usually with your ‘best friend.’ And that_ other _Russian girl you dragged along with you this time—Stark and Rhodes told me—wasn’t she was already in trouble with the law? And you peer-pressured her to go trash an airport—”_

“Wanda’s _Sokovian_ Laura, and I was _rescuing_ her—”

 _“Rescuing her from_ what _? A vacation in a mansion with her battery-operated boyfriend?”_

The mention of Vision shoved Wanda back into her chair. She closed her eyes, fighting the tears.

* * *

Her last meeting with Vision had been in Spain, when the Rogues had stopped for supplies and to fight some Hydra operatives. Vision wasn’t with the Rogues, but he and Wanda had managed to meet up in various countries around the world from time to time.

“Viz, please, anything you want, I’ll do it!”

They sat under a bridge, in the dead of night, in an empty neighborhood. Vision was in his human form, the Infinity Stone in his forehead glowing through his disguise.

“I don’t know what I want, Wanda.” His voice was as distant as his eyes. “I don’t even know what I _am_. I don’t know if I’m a stone that wants to manipulate everyone around me, or an A.I. that wants only to serve its master…or an A.I. that wants to wipe out this entire planet….I’m not a human. I’m not even from Earth, not at my core.”

“The Mind Stone is the only part of you that’s not from Earth,” Wanda urged. 

“And it’s the most powerful part of me. And in any case, it’s putting you and this entire planet in danger.”

Realizing what he was driving at, Wanda shot up. “Take me with you.”

“Wanda,”

“I’m as much a danger to everyone here as you are. You saw what I did in Lagos. You know what I did in Sokovia. Ultron…the Hulk…Lagos…I broke up the Avengers, Vision!”

“Lagos was an accident,” Vision countered. “And everything before that was a traumatized child brainwashed by—”

“ _Exactly_! I have powers as dangerous as yours that I can’t control, and I’m so confused that I’m more easy to manipulate than an A.I.! I don’t know what I’m fighting for anymore. Take me off this planet, they’ll _all_ be safer.” She added quickly, “I can protect you out there—”

“Wanda,” Vision touched her face briefly. “You’re a human, barely grown. A superhuman, with dangerous powers, finding her way…like Banner, like Barnes, like Stark, like so many others of your own kind. I won’t let you throw your life away over your first love.”

“But you’ll let me kill millions of innocents?”

“Would it be any better for you to kill innocents on another planet? One, perhaps, more advanced than Earth, with means to take a far more terrible revenge on the universe than anyone down here might?”

Wanda gapped at him. “Are we—am I—are humans just…insects to you?”

His gray eyes bore into hers. Then he cupped her face and leaned in, and for a few blissful moments, she thought she had convinced him to stay with her. But the kiss didn’t end with his lips pulling away from hers like usual. Instead, she felt him simply fade away. Like waking from a dream.

* * *

Scott was beating on his bucket with one hand, while drumming a wooden spoon between the horizontal bars of the cell. His beat and his smile were both faltering. On the wall behind him hung a collage the Rogues had put together of their loved ones back home. A photo of Scott’s daughter Cassie was pinned between a news clipping of Peggy Carter, and a photo of the Barton family printed off the computer (probably accessed via Clint’s FaceBook account). Scott’s eyes weren’t on to the photos, but Wanda didn’t need her telepathy to know that his mind was.

No one else was in the “rec hall,” as the Rogues had dubbed the former prison floor. Wanda continued watching the junk levitating around her chair. A fork…an old computer modem….a metal arm…a coffee mug creepily shaped like Captain America’s head…

* * *

It was Nat who had found Wanda under the bridge.

Wanda didn’t know how long she’d sat there crying. She instantly recognized the woman with the short bleached hair strolling down the empty street, hands in the pockets of a large dusty coat. Nat knelt next to Wanda, and they sat in silence for a bit.

“You feel like you’re not worthy of him.” Nat said finally, staring ahead at the curved stone wall opposite them. 

Wanda sniffled, her cheeks still wet. “It was all just a phase for him. Like an interesting experiment, and then he lost interest.”

Nat turned a sympathetic face to her. “He’s not human, Wanda.”

Wanda breathed deeply between tears. “I thought…when he lifted the Hammer, and he was worthy, and then _I_ was worthy of _him_ ….”

“You thought earning his love was proof that you were _worthy_ of love. That you weren’t a monster.” Nat seemed to be reminiscing about herself as much as comforting a friend. “We all have red on our ledger, Wanda.”

“Steve doesn’t seem to.”

“Steve’s done some pretty dumb shit,” Nat countered.

Wanda glanced at Nat through her tears, surprised by this news.

Nat continued, “I didn’t join you guys because I think Steve’s completely in the right here. My last orders from Fury were to keep damage to a minimum. Right now, that means keeping Stark, Rogers and Barnes away from each other, keeping myself off the government’s radar, and keeping an eye on Steve.”

Wanda slowly turned away from her, taking in this news. God, what if she’d picked the wrong side in this “civil war” after all?

Nat took a deep breath, the kind that hinted at an unpleasant change of subject. “Speaking of Steve,”

Wanda turned sharply back to Nat. “Is he alright?”

“He’s fine, Wanda. But Bucky, his friend—the Winter Soldier,”

“I worked for Hydra Nat, I know who the Winter Soldier is.”

Nat pursed her lips. “Barnes had to leave Wakanda. He broke out of his Cryo, and almost killed the princess and several other Wakandans. King T’Challa says even if they can contain him enough from killing anyone, they still couldn’t keep it quiet. And Wakanda is in a delicate position with the rest of the world at the moment.”

The emptiness consuming Wanda suddenly filled with a cold lead anvil. “Where….will Barnes go then?”

Nat took another deep breath. “Steve and Sam both think that the only ones who might have a chance at containing him next time the Winter Soldier gets out… are not currently on Earth. Except for one.”

Wanda swallowed. Working with arguably the worst victim of her former masters’ atrocities had been uncomfortable enough once. Now it seemed Wanda was being asked to work with Barnes _closely_.

“What about Stark?” Wanda said. “Steve said the Iron Man almost killed the Winter Soldier, surely he could—?”

Nat’s eyes bulged under her brow. “Wanda…did Steve tell you _why_ Stark wanted to kill Barnes?”

Wanda gave her head a dismissive shake. “He…found out that the Winter Soldier killed his parents, and lost his head…something like that. But Stark forgave _me_ , and I wasn’t even mind controlled…”

“Tony’s…got issues of his own to sort out. The last thing he needs is Barnes in his face. Either way, Stark can’t keep the government from executing Barnes. This is the only way, for right now at least. Wanda…this isn’t a request.”

* * *

A male voice cleared his throat loudly and irritably.

Wanda jerked in her chair, the junk floating around her freezing in place.

Through the horizontal bars, she saw Barnes staring up at her from the bottom floor. His brown hair fell over his face as he glared up at her under his eyebrows. His single hand was clenched in a fist. His left arm, as usual, was not there. Wanda glanced back at the objects paused in midair around her, and realized with a start that one of them was Bucky’s black and gold metal arm from Wakanda. Damaged in a recent fight, Steve had had all of the Rogue Raft’s best mechanics—that was to say, _no_ mechanics—attempting to fix it. She couldn’t remember where she’d telekinetically picked it up, and had probably been “miles away” when she had.

“Sorry,” she straightened in her chair, and focused her eyes on the metal arm.

Bucky fixed his stare on his robotic arm as it swam down to him. He snatched in out of the air, and stalked out of the room without a word.

Scott looked up from his drumming to watch Bucky leave. He looked up at Wanda with raised eyebrows and let out a long whistle, as if to say, _Someone_ _put his tampon in the wrong way this morning!_

But Wanda wasn’t comforted. She let the rest of the supplies clamor to the floor around her, and pulled her knees up onto the chair. 


End file.
